raintheory

If you don't need to record LP2 or LP4 on the unit itself, and would like native mp3 playback, go for the RH10... The MZM10 & MZM100 would definitely be preferable if you could get them... Though I think those models as well cannot record in LP2 or LP4, on the unit itself that is. IMO the ability to upload to MAC is a decent trade-off in this case.

Simple Burner 2 is available in the downloads section of these forums as a matter of fact.

I think the manual states that it is simply a supplemental charge to ensure that there aren't any errors during transfer.

If it makes you feel any better, I haven't seen any in North America either.

I think the MDS-JE520 will only play back SP/MONO... Hopefully the MDs were recorded in that format. Now all you need is a soundcard with optical in.

AFAIK, you can't place track marks into any track that you transfer from the computer to your HiMD... Mp3 or ATRAC. You may have to record the tracks via analogue in realtime in order to be able to place the track marks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4176120.stm

From personal experience, as well as reading other's posts ... Combining/Merging tracks on the unit itself has been known to cause errors.. The worst of mine being a trashed disc that had to be reformatted causing me to lose all of the recorded material. For your case, you may have better luck getting responses in the software forum, as this seems to be a SonicStage bug. Perhaps the mods will move this post?

I've had the buzzing using AC power on a few occasions.. Odd though because it seems to be only certain outlets. I did notice however, just as daiken said, that the hum/buzz was considerably decreased if I was touching the unit.

With SS 3.2 I beleive you can choose whether or not to include DRM on tracks imported from CD...

These are the forums for MiniDisc related questions... You might get a better response here: http://www.AtracLife.com Geared more towards your player.

I'd like to see this project posted myself. I have been looking into getting a deck with MDLP that I could modify to include an optical out. I've seen the JE-480 quite often in my searching for a deck...

Internet Archive. http://www.archive.org

Might be a shot in the dark, but have you tried changing the default transfer setting from "as is" to something else? Or perhaps converting the tracks in sonicstage before trying the transfer (as opposed to converting them as you are downloading)? Also upgrading to the newer SonicStage 3.2 might be worth a try if you haven't upgraded. Do a bit of searching around the forums too, I seem to remember seeing some posts about the mp3 decoder being a little off in some installations... Not sure if this is similar or not though. Good Luck!!

If you had uploaded the track to PC prior to upgrading to 3.2, then it won't work... The DRM info was already written to the HiMD at that point. Also, if you had attempted to upload and received some kind of error (again, prior to upgrading to 3.2), then there is the possibility that even though the track wasnt uploaded correctly, the DRM was still written to it... Might be a silly question, but I didnt see anyone ask it yet... You state that "the MD device" ... is the unit HiMD? ...

I apologize, I didn't mean to come across in any negative way there.. I will be sending the unit in for service/replacement probably next week. After submitting a request sony did say that the RH10 unit of mine was under an exchange program. Although they did say as well that if a replacement wasnt avail they would service the unit instead. I'm sure the newer batches of these 2nd gen units may have some of the issues resolved, but if you search around in the forums you will see posts from quite a few users about each of these faults. What 2nd gen unit do you use btw?

I'll agree... Except for the missing letters on my RH10... and the fact that the volume buttons periodically activate the search function.. Oh, and if I split a file on the RH10 into three parts, delete the middle, and then combine the remaining two it trashes the entire disc and displays "cannot record or play".. Other than that it is pretty bug-free. On topic - I am excited about the Mac uploadable recorders... Personally, can't wait to hear more about them..

To convert an Mp3 file that has been imported, right-click the file and then left-click "convert format".

Well, I just Imported a track from a CD... Without copy protection. I was able to take the resulting OMA file to another computer and play/transfer the file with ease. So let me get this straight (still hard to comprehend)... Sony made copy protection optional for importing from audio cd's (which are most likely copyrighted to begin with), yet still makes copy protection mandatory on self recordings... SONY, I think you've misunderstood... I think we were actually asking for the rights to our own music not necessarily everybody elses. (thanks though) Basically what this means (correct me if I'm wrong here) is that we now have the ability to rip CDs to ATRAC, distribute those files however we like (DRM free, since the OMA files are playable/transferrable on any computer), but yet we are not free to import our own recordings and distribute those OMA files DRM free if we desire. I'm convinced that SONY has a bizarre marketing tactic that involves confusing the crap out of it's customers.

The new SonicStage 3.2 allows unlimited uploads... see this thread http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=11311 keep in mind that this doesnt seem to apply to tracks which you have already uploaded to a prior version of SonicStage, since the DRM info has already been written to your HiMD disc. SonicStage itself has the ability to convert uploaded (analogue) recordings to WAV, after which you can do what you like with the file, preetty much eliminating the need to upload more than once for the most part. You may also want to search the forums for Marc's HiMDRenderer, which is useful for converting uploaded digital recordings (i.e. via optical in) to WAV.. As SonicStage will not convert recordings from digital sources. Hope this helps...

And it appears that this may be the only good news... Unable to playback or transfer the resulting OMA files from uploads on other computers. SonicStage states "cannot play back this track, do you want to connect to the internet to download a license?" (yes please sony, I'd like to download the license to play my own material. ) and that there is "invalid rights management information"... Oh well... Although the uploaded (OMA) files seem to still contain DRM... It appears that the tracks on the HiMD discs themselves aren't DRMed after uploading. I think this may be an attempt for sony to sell more HiMD discs since now there is actually somewhat of a reason to keep the recordings on them. One question though... Why in the world would they give you the option to add/remove copy protection when importing CDs, but not when uploading from HiMD?!?!

Did a couple more tests, My conclusion (confusion): Need to do more tests... Conflicting results... Will update soon with info... Good news so far - No problems uploading from original HiMD disc to multiple computers

I'm trying that this very moment... However I am trying this with tracks recorded via microphoone, not with CD imported tracks.. I'll post my results.. Installing 3.2 on my desktop computer at the moment..

Came up right away on mine.. no errors. -a

Did a short test: -Imported a track to SonicStage 3.2 on my laptop last night.. (HiSP, through Mic) -Copied the resulting .OMA file to my Jumpdrive. -Imported the .OMA file to SonicStage 3.2 on my work computer. Result: Cannot transfer the imported OMA file to HiMD... Cannot convert to WAV using SonicStage or HiMDRenderer... Conclusion: DRM information is still written to uploaded files on the computer, but not on the HiMD Device itself. Note: This test was for moving the resulting .OMA file after uploading to a computer. This was not a test to see if files could be uploaded to more than one computer.. I'll be doing that test next...